COMPANY NEWS

PERCAT JUST MISSES TOP 10 IN PERTH

Coates Hire Racing's Nick Percat has finished a long 200km Sunday race at the Perth 400 with an 11th place finish, after a solid run at Barbagallo Raceway.

After starting 15th he was 18th at the end of the opening lap and then put his head down to move up the order.

Percat's Commodore was well balanced and good on its tyres allowing Nick to make his first stop on lap #26 while running in eighth position.

Once the entire field had made their stop Percat was sitting in 14th and once again he went about moving through the order while looking after his tyres.

Through the middle segment a number of drivers encountered tyre issues, including Walkinshaw stable mates Garth Tander and James Courtney who both suffered punctures.

Sitting sixth when he made his final stop, Percat was in 10th place as all the stops were completed.

The final 27 lap run had Percat climb as high as eighth.

Although it had been planned to keep the best set of tyres for the final stint, they didn't give the performance as the previous sets of rubber and Percat had to drive defensively.

He slipped back behind the two Nissans of James Moffat and Michael Caruso. Then David Reynolds on fresh rubber slipped by to 10th just three laps from the finish.

Although aiming for a top-10 finish, Percat was the leading finisher amongst the Walkinshaw cars and is looking forward to continued improvement in Darwin next month.

Importantly he will head to the Northern Territory with more seat time, after a dedicated test day at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria next week.

Nick Percat: "I'd like to thank all my team for a great job. We were in a bit of strife after yesterday, but we tuned the car up for qualifying and it was a bit better. We made some more changes and it was a lot better in the race.

"I wanted to be in the top ten and we were so close, but we are back on the pace we ran in New Zealand, so I am happy. I really want to thank my boys once again for giving me a good car today".